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Contents:

The Florida Adventures

A Mother's Day Tribute

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Florida
Adventures --- "All About Babies!"

It’s Springtime here in Florida, which means
it is ‘baby time’ and definitely worth pulling out your camera and start
having fun. In the avian world, there is so much going on, it can be
difficult to figure out which way to point your camera as there are so
many flight shots with nesting material, wing displays and dancing during
the mating ritual, parents sitting and guarding nests with eggs, recently
hatched chicks, and of course the feeding-time fiascos! It is a favorite
time for me, but also a time when I have to exercise caution and
consideration for the well-being of the wildlife I’m photographing. If a
parent is frightened off the nest, the eggs and/or babies can fry in
minutes in the hot sun, and of course, there are always the predators
lurking around as they ‘lay-‘n-wait’. This is one of the great advantages
of the longer lenses; it can get you ‘up close & personal’ without
disturbing the family, which also allows you many wonderful shots of
those intimate & tender moments.

Caution must be taken with our mammal
friends also. Momma wild boar & her bevy of piglets were not running
from me, or even aware of my presence. However, they were very much aware
of the rancher’s dogs rounding up the cattle in a nearby pasture. It is a
common practice of many wild mammal parents to move their young from
place to place many times a day in an effort to protect them from hungry
predators while the young ones are feeding.

Surprisingly I have noted that my mere
presence has often been enough to discourage the idea of stalking a meal.
I guess this all comes back to good “Ethics In The Field” and a shred of
common sense. It is very easy to know when a bird is beginning to stress
about your presence. It is like there is an imaginary line drawn (maybe
there really is) of what distance is acceptable and when you’ve pushed it
just too far. You can literally see the parent getting nervous, and soon
you’ll hear the warning sounds, and if you’ve gone too far, there will be
the big lift off, usually accompanied with loud squawking and scolding. Please,
immediately back off and let her return to the nest. Now you know just
how far you can go. Later, you’ll be able to come back again and again
and document the young babies’ progress. Most birds (& often many
mammals such as people) usually return to where they were born (or nearby
that area). So once you have discovered a nest, chances are you can come
back to that area for numerous years to come. Because of our wonderful
climate here in Florida, which allows for an abundance of food, our birds
often double and triple clutch--meaning they have more than one family in
a season, usually two and three sets of chicks. This makes us terribly
spoiled as wildlife and nature photographers as we are given second &
third chances!! Pretty good odds. I would have to honestly declare that
98% of my success in my photography business of nature and wildlife is
due to the time I spend studying, watching, and learning the habits,
general conduct, & tolerance level. Once I know that, I can go back
again and again to get fantastic images.

The image of the Eagle in the nest with her
two chicks literally took me six (6) hours to capture as I sat out in the
middle of nowhere about 100’ from a lone tall pine tree. I could see the
nest, but only occasionally hear squeaks, which I knew had to be babies
bantering back and forth. With my big 500mm lens & 1.4x extender
being used as my ‘binocs’, I watched both parents taking turns flying
back and forth to a lake (about a quarter of a mile away) to catch fish,
then fly back to the tree almost as far away as the lake, then they’d
feed their faces, and fly off again. About four (4) hours into this, I
was sure I had the wrong parents until my hat blew off in the wind toward
the nest. The minute I took off after it, they took off after
me—squawking & whining as Eagles do—sending out warnings to the kids.
I knew then, with patience, I could possibly have a good shot. As I was
loosing that famed patience and getting very bored, I decided to call my
Mom on my new cell phone before the battery was good and dead. The very
minute she said “hello”, I heard squeals of delight and looked up just in
time to see Mama fly in with food for her brood. I dropped Mom/phone on
the ground knowing she was still chatting away, and fired about twenty
shots. I cherish this image for many, many reasons—not only because it is
a great shot of Mama Eagle & her chicks—but also it was soon after
that we had to place Mom in a nursing home where she is living still to
this day. The image is also symbolic to me because it is about patience,
determination, and a love or passion for what one has chosen to do with
one’s life.

I’m often asked, especially since the “birth
of digital”, to give my opinion or recommendations on cameras, gear,
etc., etc. Some of you who have known me for years are now sighing and
mumbling to yourselves “here she goes again”!! Well, you are right!
Whether I earn my living doing this, or not, I am still a wildlife &
nature photographer, instructor, nature tour guide,
conservation-enthusiast, presenter/speaker, whose work as a published
photographer has earned me enough awards and accolades to permit me to
humbly feel I must be doing something right, and perhaps some of my
reader/subscribers actually do want my thoughts and
opinions on camera gear etc. However, this is my “Spring Baby” issue,
which I will not taint with unglamorous thoughts and comments on
equipment etc. I leave you with these very pleasant thoughts and words of
wisdom….

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Enjoy the images within this Newsletter #99
and know that many were taken with my old film camera (some of you are
too young to know what film is & some of your are too old to
remember!). I scanned them with the first Nikon Cool-scan on the market.
Understand that our Florida baby season is long and usually very fruitful
(February thru June/July for nesting, hatching, fledging). Thanks to
metadata, I can prove that statement, but normally you won’t find me out
there in June/July as it is just too hot!) Actually, I’m usually headed
to the cool, dry comfort of the Pantanal, Brazil at that time, where the
wildlife has awakened, is abundant and is anxious to get started with
life. My group & I are flying there again on May 31st. You ought to
join me sometime.

Where there are babies, there are mothers,
(Wow! That was a profound comment!), so it is only
fitting that in this month of May, Day 9, Newsletter #99, I pay tribute
to ALL mothers--whether they be fluffy or furry, feathery, hairy, scaly,
slippery, slimy, have a leg in all four corners, or only two, walk
straight up, or on all fours, are spotted or striped, ugly or
beautiful—they all have one God-given-glorious-feature in common--- they
are all our Mothers………..

Happy Mother's Day!

Joanne

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Photo
Researchers, Editors, and Publishers:

As stated in previous newsletters, at no
obligation to you, send me a “want list” of images you are looking for
that may coincide with a trip I’m about to take, or have recently taken,
and I’ll do my very best to seek out that subject and shoot it with your
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